Irving Milton Adolphus (January 27, 1913 – August 16, 1988) was an American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Biography

Born in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York, and educated at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, his classical compositions include over 200 orchestral, vocal and chamber works, among them 13 symphonies and 35 string quartets (including one unnumbered). In 1935 he moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

where he studied composition with

Rosario Scalero Natale Rosario Scalero (24 December 1870 in Moncalieri - 25 December 1954 in Montestrutto) was an Italian violinist, music teacher and composer. Life and career By the age of six, Scalero was under the tutelage of Pietro Bertazzi, a violinis ...

. He was also a founding member of the

American Composers Alliance The American Composers Alliance (ACA) is an American nonprofit composer service organization dedicated to the publishing and promoting of American contemporary classical music. Founded in 1937 by Aaron Copland, Milton Adolphus, Marion Bauer and oth ...

(of which

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

was the first president); involved extensively with the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

; a board member of the

League of Composers The League of Composers/ International Society for Contemporary Music is a society whose stated mission is "to produce the highest quality performances of new music, to champion American composers in the United States and abroad, and to introduce Am ...

; Director of the Philadelphia Music Center and active in the

US civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...

. He married Elena Watnik (1913–2005), and had a son, Stephen Harris Adolphus. He was appointed director of the Philadelphia Music Center in 1936, and in 1938 moved to

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

, Pennsylvania, where he worked for the Department of Labor and Industry of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until his retirement in West Harwich, where he organized the Chatham Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. He died in

Harwich, Massachusetts Harwich ( ) is a New England town on Cape Cod, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census it had a population of 13,440. Harwich exper ...

, on August 16, 1988.

Jazz

During the 1920s and early 1930s, Adolphus played with many jazz bands and orchestras in the

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

circuit in New York's

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

and in New York City, including Irving "Ving" Merlin, with whom he composed ''I Can't Believe It''. in 1931. During the 1930s, he was an arranger for

Glen Gray Glenn Gray Knoblauch (June 7, 1900 – August 23, 1963), known professionally as Glen Gray, was an American jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.''The Mississippi Rag'', "Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra," George A. Bo ...

's Casa Loma Orchestra and arranged their theme song, "Smoke Rings". The

BMI Foundation The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1985 by executives of Broadcast Music Incorporated for the purpose of "encouraging the creation, performance and study of music through awards, scholarships, internships, grants, and c ...

distributes the Milton Adolphus Award, which is given every year at New York City's LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts to a student for excellence in

jazz improvisation Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment parts in a performance of jazz music. It is one of the defining elements of jazz. Improvisation is composing on the spot, when a singer or instrumentalist inv ...

Compositions

* Symphony No. 8, in B minor (1936) * ''Adagio'' for solo violin, solo cello and sinfonietta, Op.42 * ''Birthday Suite'' for piano, Op.87 * ''Bitter Suite'' for oboe, 4 clarinets and strings, Op.98 (1955) * ''Bouncettino'' for viola and, Op.78 (1944) * ''Cape Cod Suite'', Op.200 * ''David's Dream'', Aberration for orchestra, Op.149 * ''Dream World'' for piano, Op.90 * ''Elegy'', Op.46 * ''Elegy'' for clarinet, horn, violin, viola and cello, Op.81 * ''Faith'', An Oratorio, Op.123 * ''Five Vignettes'' for Piano, Op.94 * ''Four Poems'' * ''Improvisation'' for viola and piano, Op.61 (1937) * ''Interlude'' for cello and chamber orchestra, Op.96 * ''Lilacs'' for medium voice with clarinet and piano, Op.95 (1982) * ''"Opus 93"'' for clarinet and piano, Op.93 * ''"Opus 99"'' for flute (or clarinet) and piano, Op.99 * ''Petits Fours'' for cello and piano (1960) * ''Prelude and Allegro'' for string orchestra, Op.51 * Septet, Op.39 * Septet in F minor for oboe (or flute), 3 violins, 2 violas, 1 cello, Op.39a * ''Song of the aircraft warning corps'' (1943) * String Octet No.2, Op.175 * String Quartet No.8 in E Minor, Op.41 * String Quartet No.10, Op.45 * String Quartet No.13, Op.63 * String Quartet No.14, Op.65 * String Quartet No.15, Op.67 * String Quartet No.16 "Indian", Op.69 * String Quartet No.17, Op.70 * String Quartet No.18, Op.72 * String Quartet No.20, Op.80 * String Quartet No.21 "In Ancient Style", Op.84 * String Quartet No.23, Op.91 * Suite for string orchestra * Suite No.2 for orchestra * ''Tribach'' for flute, clarinet and piano, Op.101 * ''Trio Prosaico'' for violin, horn and piano, Op.147 * ''Ulalume'', Op.39b * ''War Sketches'' * Wind Quartet'', Op.20

Recordings

Few Adolphus recordings are currently available; however, ''Adolphus/Pisk/Gerschefski/McBride'', a Composers Recordings, Inc. album from 1965, recorded by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, was reissued in 2010 by

New World Records New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.Adolphus/ Pisk/ Gerschefski/ McBride: Orchestral Works.
/ref> and contains Adolphus' ''Elegy'' (1936). Additionally, many scores can be ordered from th
American Composers Alliance reprint service

References

External links

BMI Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adolphus, Milton 1913 births 1998 deaths Musicians from the Bronx Musicians from New York City Curtis Institute of Music alumni Yale University alumni 20th-century classical composers American classical composers Jazz-influenced classical composers Vaudeville performers Classical musicians from New York (state)